got asked "whats the best single mod to do?"

[grumpyvette]

got asked?

that questions usually asked by the newer guys and guys with a limited budget to spend on the car, looking at the hobby long term, .....

WHATS THE best single mod to DO TO YOUR CAR?

unless you've got a huge bank balance some thought needs to go into your goals

now to me its rather obvious that you plan your build to get to a goal, if its stopping faster you need better tires, bigger brakes and a better suspension, etc. but those mods will hardly be the best choice if the goal is keeping the engine from overheating in traffic for example.

FIRST ,you select a goal and do the necessary research, then you collect the necessary components to reach the goal.

and in many cases its not car parts you need as much as a decent place to work on the car and the tools to do that work.

Id say the first goal, is having some basic tools and a shop manual, and a decent place to work on the car, if you've ever been forced to work on your car in a dirt or sloping asphalt drive way without the correct tools Id think you'll agree that having basic tools and a decent flat section of concrete floor with a roof over it, even if its a simple car port beats the hell out of lying in the dirt, fighting fire ants and having the engine,stand or your jack stands tip as they sink into the drive way surface or working in the rain..

 

as to tools, a LIFT, is nice but not mandatory, (4) 12 ton jack stands and two floor jacks worked for me for several years ,a decent WELDER, is almost mandatory and a decent drill press sure helps, GOOD STABLE CAR RAMPS, and a work bench with a vise sure won,t hurt!

and testing and tuning tools plus basic hand tools come up before all the cams, heads etc. in my list. if you don,t have tools like a timing light, vom meter, pressure test gauges, and a decent selection of hand tools and a decent place to work, and a secure location to store your tools then THAT should be your first goal in my opinion,that might not be what you wanted to hear but 60 plus years of experience make me think its the correct route to take

[grumpyvette]

now build with a plan in mind,no matter what you do you'll need a low restriction exhaust, decent performance gearing, a manual trans or a higher stall converter and bigger & better brakes so that's where Id suggest you start, a well designed, low restriction exhaust and headers would be my first suggestion along with matching the drive train, rear gearing and torque converter stall speed, to your goals before even touching the engine, but keep in mind the torque rating of your eventual engines power range when selecting components, then if it seems like the cooling system, suspension and brakes will need to be upgraded those should be given some serious thought before you get into the engine, now that's backwards from what most guys do, but it tends to prevent extended down times or driving a car that's constantly breaking down or having a car with enough horsepower that will have a tendency to get you killed when the rate of acceleration, far exceeds the cars ability to steer and turn, at high speeds or far out performs the brakes, and suspensions ability to stop the car once a decent engines installed.

 

Id also strongly suggest building a second separate pure performance engine, that can be swapped into and out of the car over a weekend so your never out of transportation for long if that car is your main source of transportation rather than a weekend toy!

once you get into high compression, larger cams, better heads, superchargers ETC, you tend to run into machine shops that don,t return parts as promised and speed parts that need to be modified before they work correctly etc. you sure won,t be the first guy that gets shipped the wrong parts or has a machine shop ruin component

rather than modifying your main, and possibly only cars engine to the point where a break down.(and any car will eventually break down, but high performance engines have a slightly higher tendency, to do so) will put a serious check in your life style.

besides, its always nice to be able to drop the procedure your involved with for weeks at a time at YOUR convenience, family concerns, or if lack of funds, lack of time or just lack of interest , or the local machine shops promised due dates, on returning parts, or the local speed shops back ordered parts, prevent you from finishing some stage of your engine build up.

having the ability to reinstall the stock engine and drive the car without worrying about getting to work or taking trips is a nice option to have on any long weekend notice.

take your time and build a killer combo, but don,t paint yourself into a corner, use your head and plan the steps carefully, you certainly don,t want an 800hp supercharged monster under the hood if the wife needs to use the car to get groceries and you don,t want the dual quads, on a tunnelram a supercharger ,stack injectors , or other really obvious mods sticking out of the hood, if you need to park the car where its not under your constant watch and where its out of the weather and in some place its secure from thieves.

if it looks nice people notice and theres a small number of guys out there that seem to think stealing cars or pouring a chocolate shake down your injector stacks is perfectly acceptable behavior!

you don,t want to get stuck with just building what came under the hood simply because that's what was there either!

do the research,and remember a mildly modified high compression 477-496-502- 540-572 big block will provide a great deal more dependability than a highly modified 283-307-350 with the same hp, without power boosters, and a 383-427 sbc, or even a 396-454 496 etc. bbc with a centrifugal supercharger or a turbo can put out amazing hp levels and still fit under a stock hood, if your really good at fabricating some components and if you give a great deal of thought to the installation, and take measurements before you start selecting the car the installation, will be made in,and components you'll use in your personal cars engine build-up and the drive train that will be used..

heres not much glamor in doing things the reasonable route,

if your building a modern hot rod, that's to be used on the street

the complementary mods Id suggest be done first are

to install headers and a low restriction 3" exhaust,

then go for a 3000rpm stall torque converter(if its an auto transmission)

and a 373:1-to-3.90:1 rear gear ratio and an over drive transmission, like a 700r4,or 4l80e

followed by better brakes, once that's done you can work on the engine , and expect to have a balanced set of components

example

having a low 14 second car the handles and brakes far better than the car that looks so similar to your buddies car,

when his car is running in the low 13s or high 12s because, he went into the engine , in his car first,

rather than upgrading the drive train, suspension and exhaust first, like you did,

sure is hard for most guys to do!

but it pays off later when you swap engines and your suddenly in the low 12s or high 11 second time slot or even faster with a car that's not always in the shop!

especially when your car handles, and runs consistent times and his runs off into the barrier at the end of the track because his brakes suck and he can,t turn well, and you see his engine constantly overheats, and hes consistently replacing parts, parts that failed because they won,t work correctly in the application

 

the problem seems to be that most guys can,t accept the idea that a few good(EXPENSIVE) parts that are well matched will produce better results

than twice as many low cost parts, that, and most of us have a problem spending $1500-$2500 on a set of heads or a block when parts that look similar cost less than a 1/3rd of that cost

and when what they think is a screaming deal on the inferior parts comes along they jump on the purchase rather than getting the more expensive components, that they really need.

 

 

trust me here,

a decent set of brodix,trickflow,dart, or afr heads, that are carefully matched to your other components, selecting the largest displacement you can afford and matching the cam timing to the cars gearing and compression ratio,for the combos application and a decent dart block stuffed full of quality forged components that are,selected for a certain power range and rpm band are going to produce better power than youll ever get close to with ported stock heads and a stock production block

 

and yes every time I get almost enough saved for my dream parts list I also have those EMERGENCYs come up and I find I need to spend a good percentage of the car budget on other things so your not the only guy facing that problem

Edited July 6, 2009 by grumpyvette

[Z48LT-1]

Nicely done, Grumpy!

 

This oughta be sticky on every car forum on the interwebs.

 

It's too bad Common Sense 101 was never a required course for every one before he got his first car.

 

Many thanks!

 

Best -- Gary

 

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile.
-- Sir Wilfred Grenfell

[rytherwr]

Thanks, Grumpy....dead center target! Not easy to adhere to, but absolutely the correct way to go about it in the real world.

 

Regards,

Wayne